Energy Crisis Averted

Thanks to Dump Trumpet for the link to this video, explaining how two fundamental physical truths can be harnessed to provide perpetual motion.

Duelling Telsa Coils

Thanks to Good Math, Bad Math for pointing me to this wonderful video of two Telsa coils being controlled so that the sound they generate forms a lovely duet.

I think they should bring out an entire album of this!

Non-Newtonian Fluids

The viscosity of a Non-Newtonian fluid increases under stress, effectively turning it into a solid. This makes it possible to walk (quickly) on the surface of such a liquid.

I found this nice demonstration of its properties via Crooked Brains. The liquid, in this case, is a mixture of corn starch and water.

The Kaye Effect

I found this on Neatorama, which I was led to by a post on Paul's blog.

It would take too many words to explain; just watch the video ... which includes an appropriate set of words.

Ultra Thin LCD

According to iTechNews, Samsung have created an LCD panel that's only 1.29mm thick.

This will make for some really thin mobile phones in the near future ...not that there aren't plenty of those from Samsung already, of course.

Do My Eyes Deceive Me?

Generally, of course, the answer is "Much of the time."

However, on Michael Bach's Optical Illusions site, the answer is "Almost all of the time."

I'd seen a few of these before, but they're always worth another look. That site has a huge number of excellent illusions, including explanations.

Are You Taking The Piss?!

Well, if not, these urine-powered batteries definitely are.

They can produce 1.5V for around 90 minutes, with improvements possible.

It gives a whole new meaning to "current leak".

SnOil

Here's another artist using ferrofluids. Frey Martin, an "interaction and interface designer, has a project called SnOil.

One of the examples is based on the old "snake" game, where you have to navigate a snake around a computer screen, eating up morsels, but making sure not to run over yourself.

I used to play this on video terminals back in 1980. Very retro.

A Neat Trick

I can't really say anything without spoiling it, so just watch the video. I find it hard to believe, but it looks fair dinkum.

Magnetic Sculpture

Artist Sachiko Kodama creates dynamic sculptures using ferrofluids and electromagnets.

I have no real understanding of how the precise motions are achieved, but they look amazing. This site contains stills and videos of a number of Kodama's projects.

Building Stonehenge

I found this video clip over at Random Good Stuff. It's pretty impressive what one person can do by applying some simple mechanics.

As Archimedes said, "Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth."

iPhone Runs On XScale?

According to an article over at Apple Insider, an Italian Intel executive says that the iPhone is running on an XScale chip.

Mind you, I wouldn't really care if it was powered by tiny hamsters running around in a wheel ... I just want one!

Storing Data In A Single Photon

A team of researchers at the University of Rochester have come up with a way to store multiple bits of information (in this case an image of "UR", consisting of a few hundred pixels) in a single photon of light.

I have no real understanding of how this works, but according to this article, it takes advantage of the particle-wave duality of light.

Eventually, this could lead to absurdly high density storage.